Installing older printers on Windows 10

So I had a problem at work: a client had a pretty old printer and after a Windows 10 update they couldn’t install its driver. Let’s see how we can resolve the issue.

The printer in question was a Sharp AR5316E and the error message was the following: “Windows can’t install the kernel-mode print driver. To obtain a driver that is compatible with the version of Windows you are running, contact the manufacturer.“ and after this there was another message “Windows cannot connect to the printer. The printer driver is not compatible with a policy enabled on your computer that blocks NT 4.0 drivers”. After a while googling I found out that windows 10 blocks older drivers and because of that you had to set some setting in windows group police editor. This process should work also with other printers.

Here are the steps I took to get it working

Firs of all you have to delete the previous printer drivers, so because of this after this process previous printers need to be reinstalled.
The folders you have to delete are as follows:

NOTE: If you can’t delete them you need to stop printer spool service from service manager, and after deleting start the service again

Go to itechtics.com/enable-gpedit-windows-10-home. At the bottom of the article there is a hyperlink that reads: new method to easily enable group policy in Win 10 Home. You have to download a small batch file and follow their instructions. This will allow you to run gpedit.msc. Then you can use the instructions here to get your printer to work.

For Google searchers who may follow, I was also seeing an error during the HP printer installation wizards that indicated “Error, A fatal error occurred preventing product use. Click ‘Cancel’ to cancel install.”

I was also seeing the errors indicated here in the post when using the “No Installer” print drivers.

You just saved my life, I was thinking of rolling back to win 8.1 after several failed attempts to reinstall the hp 2130 printer. Following your instruction I did reinstall the drivers and everything went back to normal. A jumbo size thank you.
Wishing you all the best
Celal